Although Charles Koechlin led an — one could state — almost ‘conventional’ life as a composer, studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Massenet and Fauré and subsequently earning his money as a teacher and composer, his interests stretched long ways beyond just composing. He had a wide range of interests, which can also be assumed to have affected his compositional style. These interests, for instance, included French folksong, Bach chorales, the “Jungle Book”, photography, and most noticeably, astronomy, with the young Koechlin having had aspirations of becoming an astrologist.
In his enormous output of orchestral works, chamber music, and vocal music, this analytical approach is very often present, which leads to a highly personal and immediately recognisable musical style. In the Cello Sonata, which was written in 1917 and premiered in 1924, we can almost imagine ourselves under a heaven of stars, with melodies that effortlessly seem to flow in and out of the musical landscape present, and underlying patterns sometimes being very hard to decipher, if at all present. In all of this, rhythm and time signature seem to be floating freely in time and space, especially in the first two movements, of which the first movement is somewhat brighter in tone than the second movement, the latter featuring some rather dark colours, aided by the performance indication “en somme” (sleeping). In the third movement, some more agitation seems to occur, which however seems to come along with a slightly brighter the mood, especially considering the movement preceding it. After a number of climaxes that however never get overwhelming or emotionally intense, the movement, and with it the sonata, ends in a calm and soothing manner.
